Meet The Two Roberts: artists, lovers, outrageous outsiders!

My new novel is a love-letter to Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, two neglected gay pioneers who met on their first day at the Glasgow School of Art in 1933. I’ve imagined the lives - and loves - they were forced to hide.

The Two Roberts were charismatic art stars - collected by major galleries, photographed by Vogue, filmed by Ken Russell. But they lived as hard as they worked...scandal was no stranger.

Dylan Thomas adored them. Francis Bacon wanted to be them. Elizabeth Smart hired them as nannies (perhaps unwisely).

Two of the 20th century’s most brilliant artists. Almost forgotten. Until now.

There are so many gaps in their story - so many questions unasked.

My new novel is all about what it means to find your voice, to find love when it’s forbidden and to change the way the world sees.

I’ve fallen in love with The Two Roberts.

I hope you do too.

Published by Canongate in September 2025.

Follow me on insta for pre-orders, events, library visits and partnerships with indie bookshops.

New Book, The Two RobertsDamian Barr29 October 2024The Two Roberts

I'm Curating a Show at Charleston!

This exhibition is their first in England since 1962.

It’s all about the Two Roberts, Colquhoun and Macbryde. It traces their incredible journey from 1930s Glasgow to wartime Europe, through London in the Blitz, to tragedy... Tracing their spectacular rise and fall, it puts them back where they were—at the centre of a wild creative set in a rapidly changing world.

It includes their time in Lewes, where they lived from 1947-49, supported by the Miller sisters, patrons connected to the Bloomsbury Group. Paintings, lithographs, drawings and archive celebrate their personal and artistic bond and puts them in context with contemporaries.

The show will open in Sept 2025 at Charleston in Lewes and tickets are on sale in the new year. There are so many folk to thank but this couldn’t happen without the Charleston team, Much Ado Books or the artist Davy Brown.

Charleston ShowDamian Barr29 October 2024The Two Roberts

Most Images Credited to Daisy Honeybunn

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